Posts Tagged ‘Painkiller: Hell & Damnation’

The latest incarnation of Painkiller attempts to avoid the possibility of being weaker than the original game by being the original game, plus its first expansion, all spruced up and ready to party like it’s 2004. A sprucier 2004. But is it a competent copy or something else? I’ve gathered a saucerful of souls and a headful of thoughts. Here they are.

We live in strange times. Case in point: Painkiller: Hell & Damnation exists. For those keeping score, it’s a shiny new remake of a game that, itself, was basically a return to the twitchy, blink-and-you’ll-be-skewered-by-five-th0usand-rockets shooters of yore. Is it possible to be nostalgic for nostalgia? Because I believe that’s what The Farm 51 and Nordic Games are banking on here. But, as John pointed out, there’s something to be said for frantic skellington-blasting action – even if that thing is “Why do I like this so much?” If that’s the case, your tear-jerking quest of self-discovery begins now, as Hell & Damnation’s officially out. View a very emotionally confusing celebratory trailer after the break.

‘Hell and Damnation’ is the kind of exclamation that I imagine might escape the rarely unpursed lips of a country vicar as he stubs his toe on the rector’s boot-scraper when arriving for afternoon tea. Tacked on the end of Painkiller’s colon, it’s probably not intended to sound as quaint as all that but rather to convey the gurgling, catarrh-trembling roar of a heavy metalist. John has already played the opening levels of this remake of the original kill ‘em up, which comes out on Halloween. The Halloween release, so close to Doom 3: BFG Edition, is an altogether correct confluence of events as Painkiller always felt much Doomier than Doom 3. The video below contains loud music and giant boss monsters.

Painkiller is a game that’s never really been away since it first appeared in 2004. While never actually receiving a formal sequel, there have been four more games since, each from a different developer, and each described as a standalone expansion. Which makes it all the more strange that Painkiller: Hell & Damnation is still not a sequel, but rather a remake. I’ve had my hands on five of the levels.

Back in the old days, when only 12 people read RPS, each and every one of them hated me to the core because I said I didn’t think the original Painkiller was a very good videogame. I wonder what happens when I say that now? I think we can all agree that these long years of expansion packs and expandydandelions haven’t exactly done great favours for ‘the brand’, though. Looks like this may be about to change, as the Nordic Games-published/funded Painkiller: Hell & Damnation has the auspices of a high-budget reboot. Polish (and thus not Nordic, confusingly) devs The Farm 51 perhaps don’t have too much known heritage behind them – Necrovision primarily, although apparently collaborated on The Witcher and Two Worlds II. They’re getting to play with the Unreal 3 engine for this, and if these screenies are legit rather than the shot of the bull this could be a bit of a treat for those who crave high-speed, high-gloss demon-slaying.